Quick Summary:

Sometimes, when you enter a Bible story mid-stream, it’s hard to get your bearings, and that’s what’s going on in this lesson from Exodus 33.

God and Moses have been having an ongoing discussion about what the relationship between God and God’s people Israel—ought to look like and whether the marriage will last—or bite the dust. And in today’s text we enter that conversation mid-sentence. When we go back a few chapters, we find out that after the big celebration marking Israel’s escape from Egypt across the Red Sea, the relationship between God & people starts heading south quickly. Three months into the wilderness, God has had it up to here with this stiff-necked people, and is quite convinced they would not survive the desert journey if things keep going the way they’ve been going. Moses is stuck between a rock and a hard place. And he bargains with God.

Moses’ ultimate request, to see God’s glory, is a reminder to us all that the most precious gift we are given is the gift of God’s very self. Ultimately, that’s what we’re after. And in Jesus, that’s where we land.